How to Grade Pokemon Cards

Presented By

Written by Giovanni

Table of Contents

WARNING:

IF YOU’RE MERELY IN THIS FOR PROFIT, THEN STOP READING AND GO GET A REAL JOB. THIS GUIDE IS NOT TO BE DISTRIBUTED TO SCAMMERS, TOXIC PERSONALITIES, PEOPLE WHO’VE TAKEN ADVANTAGE OF YOUNG COLLECTORS, OR ANYONE WHO DOESN’T TRULY LOVE THE WORLD OF POKÉMON. ANY REPRODUCTION OF THIS GUIDE WITHOUT WRITTEN CONSENT IS PROHIBITED.

This guide is for informational purposes only and is all my opinion only. This guide provides no warranty or guarantee of the grades you will receive. This is meant to be educational and provide guidance as what to expect. Everyone who’s graded enough cards has stories of rare situations where strange grades are returned. You can use this guide as a reasonable expectation of what to expect but there is nothing like actually going through the submission experience yourself. 

It all comes down to experience, start small and work your way up.

Authors Notes

Thank you for reading Giovanni’s Grading Guide! I’m super excited to be a part of your journey to your first (or next) grading submission. I’ve graded thousands of Pokémon cards with all sorts of grading companies and want to share my knowledge with you. I learned the hard way in the beginning and made many mistakes. Your first grading submission can seem daunting, especially if you are sending your childhood cards. I’ve watched every video out there about grading and some contain a lot of misinformation. This guide is a culmination of my experience, talking with actual graders, and big collectors in the industry.

This guide is targeted at the people who have never submitted cards for grading before. If you are looking to grade your childhood cards, then this guide will demystify the process. For those who have submitted before, there will be details in here that can still help you get better grades. Over the years I’ve met other graders and learned some interesting tips & tricks. Everything from packaging to shipping your precious cards can be nerve-wracking for your first time. Have no fear as Giovanni, The King of Darkness, is here to shine the light into this confusing process. Consider this my way of giving back to all my followers and the collector community. I wish I had something like this when I first started grading cards!

If you like this guide, here are a few ways to support Poke Master Center.

  1. Tell your friends about us!
  2. Shop on my eBay or website for Cleaning Kits, Slabs, Sealed Product and Singles.
  3. Follow me on my Instagram @PokeMasterCenter & my YouTube
  4. Sharing this guide with friends.
  5. Buy the grading kit that goes along with this guide.

This is the grading kit I sell along with this guide.

I wish you the best of luck with your journey to becoming a Pokémon Master.

         

Introduction

Submitting Pokémon cards for grading can significantly increase their value, especially if they receive a high grade. This guide will walk you through the entire process from evaluating your cards, preparing them for submission, all the way to shipping them off. Whether you are a beginner or an expert, this guide aims to provide detailed instructions so you can achieve the best possible grade for your Pokémon cards. I highly recommend reading this guide in its entirety before doing anything.

If at any time you have questions or input on details in this guide, email me at Giovanni@PokeMasterCenter.com or DM me on Instagram.

Grading Companies

I’ve graded with a bunch of different companies and it really just comes down to personal preference and your goals. Each grading company has their own grading standards. Don’t think that a Gem Mint 10 is an automatic 10 elsewhere. Companies like Beckett & CGC take more of an average grade approach to the cards surface, centering, corners, and edges. PSA takes the lowest grade of those 4 criteria and issues that grade. Have a card that looks perfect but the back has one tiny white dot on the corner? That is almost certainly a PSA 9 unless the slab can hide it. That same card sent to CGC may hit a gem mint 10 but probably not the prestine 10. There are a ton of grading companies now and they all have their own pros and cons.

This guide covers the generic submission process for grading companies with some tips to consider for certain ones. Graders have quotas to meet and usually on average have 60 seconds per card when evaluating condition. On more expensive cards, they spend more time looking it over and also consult internal experts to ensure authenticity, condition, etc. They may miss grade sometimes, but they are usually accurate. Who you end up choosing to grade with it really on you to figure out. I won’t promote a specific grading company so talk to your local card shops, collectors, and the community to gather your own insight on who to go with.

Using Beckett in Certain Cases

Becket is a great grading company but there are only ever two cases where I would consider submitting a card to Beckett.

1. The card is truly a perfect copy. This means it is near 50/50 centered on the front and pretty good on the back, no whitening, no scratches or surface damage, vibrant ink, no blurry text, edges are flat (not coming up), and corners are well rounded. This is what might have a chance to hit a “Black Label 10”. With companies like TAG, maybe this changes over time but for now Black Labels have a massive premium due to the low population and difficultly. It sometimes takes several submissions of the same card to hit the BL 10. PSA 10s can have a few minor defects and still receive the gem mint label. It’s common to see a minor print defect that is common on print runs, slightly off-center but within 55/45, and other small blemishes on many gem mint 10s out there but they are usually hidden by the slab in some way. The amount of Black Labels compared to PSA 10s is often much lower. These black label 10s are worth much more than a PSA 10. Take these pop reports as of 6/21/2024 on the recent Moonbreon chase card for example.

There are 123 Black Label 10 Moonbreons – Last one sold for 10k in 2023 but there’s a few on eBay where the seller is asking 9k

The PSA Pop report shows 12,365 PSA 10s which is wild.

That means there are 99% more PSA 10s than BGS BL 10s.

 

2. The other case to send a card to Beckett is if you didn’t like your grade with another company and want to get a second opinion with sub-grades on the label. Sub-grades make it clear on what is wrong with a card by breaking down the grading into four categories. Centering, surface, corners, and edges. Some companies don’t offer sub-grades, but some provide “grader notes” – more about that later.

BGS Subgrades are helpful for seeing where a card fell short. If you see one with 9.5s on everything, it might be worth a shot at a resubmission.

Shoutout to Mark from Germany for sharing this with me. He has been pretty lucky with crossover grading PSA to Beckett. As seen, PSA to BGS usually results in 1 grade higher but as you get to the 9.5/10 scale in a BGS/CGC grade, their algorithm vs other grading companies start to differ. I’ve cracked 9/9.5 slabs with TAG/BGS and gotten higher grades elsewhere.

If a card is a solid PSA 8 or lower and you want a higher grade, BGS may give you a point bump. If you have a BGS 9.5, you may hit the 10 elsewhere. Always crack and submit. I don’t like doing crossover grading as it gives the grader a barometer of what to grade it as without the mystery element but there is some risk there.

We will get more into resubmitting cards at the end of this guide.

Your Working Environment

Work with your cards in a clean environment. Buy an air filter to remove dust from the air, create a clean working space, use a non-abrasive foam mat to lay your cards on, use rubber gloves, and have a quick storage plan in case something comes up or you need to take a break. By leaving your cards out, you open risk of kids/animals to destroy your cards. Keep liquids and “tippable” objects far away from the area where you will be working on your cards. Most importantly, do not get intoxicated or “high af” before working with your cards.

Graders are equipped with microfibers and velvet mats at their desk. They can wipe your card to get dust off but I wouldn’t bet on it. After a card is ready for submission, sleeve it and place it in a card saver. Then put it in a ziplock bag to reduce the risk of dust getting in the card saver.

*Optional – A Crane air filter helps remove dust from your work area. Dust flying into your card savers right before submission will possibly hurt your grade.

Buy one here on amazon for $90~

The Story of Ninetales

One time I got trashed and worked on a 1st Edition Base Set Ninetales from my childhood. I just got into cleaning cards and was inexperienced. During that time, I wiped the back edges with a microfiber and wrecked her. I cleaned it with the card spray and didn’t know to keep the moister away from the edge of the card. Well, the edges started “bubbling up” – What I didn’t know is if I just let it dry before wiping the edges and not touch it, it would have been fine. I wiped the wet edges with a microfiber and the blue paint chipped off. I added way more whitening to the card and reduced it from a possible 8 to a 7 which is hundreds of dollars in lost value. This is one of the many reasons I don’t drink anymore.

This guide is dedicated to my fallen Ninetales, RIP.

Bottom line, remove as many distractions as possible during these sessions. That means silent mode on the phone, put some chill music on, do this while the family is asleep, and keep drinks and food away from your working area. Ever since my PTSD with Mrs. Ninetales, I prefer to be alert, alone, awake, and sober during these sessions to improve my chances of hitting the highest grades possible. You will make mistakes even with this guide so practice on base cards first before moving up to the bigger ones. I take my time with higher-end cards and still make mistakes. Less is more when it comes to cleaning cards unless if there is significant damage, then the big guns gotta get pulled out like the holo crease thermal pen to reduce Pokémon card creases. If a high-end card looks like a 10, I do as little as possible on my first submission so I can’t beat myself up over it if hits a 9. Then I’ll crack it, try a few more things, and then resubmit it without the guilt of damaging a card.

Card Cleaning

Cleaning cards is a contentious issue. Grading companies claim they will reject cards where they detect it has been “doctored”. The Pokemon Card Cleaning Kits I sell here on my website are the same tools I use to restore Pokemon cards. The card spray and polish I use is safe to use. I only trust the products I sell as they are battled tested with thousands of cards graded with none kicked back as “altered”. The holo cream I make is not a filler and instead “buffs” the minor scratches out. Some grading companies claim to be working on “advanced detection methods” but I call bullsh*t. The only way I see them detecting anything is if you leave polish on the card or on the edges. Better than cleaning is fixing lifted corners, indents, and bent cards. Fixing bent corners are going to be your best chance at getting a grade bump. That will never be detectable so that is something to consider. If you see this as altering, well; that’s like your opinion man. All my kits come with exclusive instructions for customers only and pair well with this grading guide to achieve higher grades. Take pictures before you clean your cards so you can compare results. While I can’t guarantee you won’t damage your card more, I can say from my own personal experience that I will always use my tools before grading. Always practice on base cards or cheaper holos before moving on to the high end stuff.

Gathering your Cards

Feel free to skip the next section if you don’t need advice on prepping vintage childhood binders.

The first step is carefully removing the cards from your binders/boxes. I recommend pulling them all out and putting them in sleeves/top loaders. Then you can go one by one looking for damage to the cards. I don’t recommend having your card out raw unless you’re inspecting or cleaning it. Having your cards in a pile will help you count how many cards you have to hit the item minimum for a bulk submission. Usually you want to pull together at least 20 cards to hit the bulk rate submission but that number varies with monthly specials/etc.

Removing Cards from Old Binder Sheets

My binder was over 20 years old with the cards never being taken out since then. I noticed my cards were “sticking” to the binder sheets. Pulling them straight out of the binder sheets posed a lot of risks since some were not sleeved. I ended up taking the sheets out of the binder and using fine scissors to cut one side of the sheet completely off. That way I could easily pull the cards out without risking binder creases & whitening.

If your cards are “frozen” in the binder, carefully cut the rows out.

Cut one corner out of the left or right side of the sheet. Take your time.

Remove the card once the corner is open.

Removing Cards from Top Loaders

My common way of pulling cards out of top loaders is to just slightly “squeeze” the sides of the top loader to open it up and grabbing the sleeve then pulling on that. Don’t grab the card directly and pull that out as you risk scratching the card on the top loader on its way out. By taking out the sleeve with the card in it, it will be protected from the hard plastic of the top loader. The key here is to not squeeze the sides of the top loader too hard otherwise you risk “snapping” the top loader into a U shape therefore possibly bending your card. Once you get a grip of the sleeve, relieve pressure on the top loader and pull it out so some of the sleeve is sticking out of the top loader. Release the sides to flatten the top loader back to its normal shape and pull the sleeve straight out gently. If you keep squeezing the top loader open as you pull the card out, you could “pop” the top loader to a U shape and permanently crease your card before its all the way out.

I’ve seen people turning the top loader upside down or on its side and using a trusting motion to try and make the sleeved card come out. Problem with that is the card may come out but the sleeve stays in place and now its touching the top loader or worse the card shoots out onto the floor. If you’re really paranoid, cut a post-it note and use the sticky side to catch on to the sleeve in the top loader and pull the card out that way.

Removing Cards from Sleeves

If you’re dealing with a vintage card that’s been in the sleeve for years, especially if it was stored in the heat; you’ll want to use precision scissors to cut a corner of the sleeve out just like I showed with the binder. This will let you open the sleeve and let the card “breath”. If the sleeve is sticking to the card, you should put the sleeved card into a humidifier. This will help naturally separate the sleeve from the card. If you force the card out prematurely, you run the risk of chipping the paint on the way out. If it’s a modern card or cheap card, I would just see if you can open the sleeve and pull it out. Otherwise, easiest way is to just push up from the bottom of the sleeved card and push the card up/out of the sleeve. Use rubber gloves at this point to avoid putting fingerprints on the card if it’s a valuable card. Place your raw card on a soft foam mat once removed.

The chance you hit a Gem Mint 10

            Ok, so the moment of truth. Is your vintage childhood card a 10!? Short answer, highly unlikely. Please don’t take this the wrong way. I felt the same way about my cards. My dad collected sports cards and was taught to sleeve my cards, but I put them in binders and boxes. Binders are notorious for indents, whitening, PokeMold, and scratching. Unless someone taught you as a kid to sleeve and top load a card then it most likely has damage. The early Pokemon TCG went through a massive boom and Wizards of the Coast printed a ton of the early sets which resulted in a lot of factory issues. Things like print lines, whitening, and off-centered prints were common.

The likelihood of your childhood card being centered well and undamaged coming out of the pack was very low. I graded most of my valuable childhood cards and I only hit 2 Gem Mint 10’s (1st Edition Jungle non-holo Snorlax, and 1st Edition Jungle Pikachu) most of the other cards came back 7s, 8s, and a handful of 9s. Could I have resubmitted the 9s and hit 10s eventually? Probably, I’m sure there were some 9s that if I looked at the corners, I could have used the pen-tool to fix them. However, over time I’ve learned a lot about what the definition of a Gem Mint 10 card is. When I first started grading, I was disappointed with my first submission but don’t lose hope! This guide will help you identify the grade a raw card should get.

What is a Gem Mint 10 Card?

A Gem Mint 10 card has no obvious flaws. Some grading companies look at a card with the perspective of “Curb Appeal” and some are very picky in their approach. Over time you will get an eye for what a gem mint card looks like. Cards that look perfect but have a flaw upon very close inspection still have a chance at the 10.

This means one white dot on the corner in most cases will make it a 9 when everything else is perfect about the card. Why? Because it’s immediately noticeable. More on this later about whitening but take into account that graders are trained to keep the customer happy. If it’s a cheap card, they will let the white dot slide and give you the 10. If it’s a 1st edition Charizard, they are gonna ding you for that.  

The reality of grading is if the card looks like a 10 to the untrained eye, it’s probably a 9 or lower. You need to know what you’re looking for and take the emotional attachment out of the equation. You’re more likely to hit 10s on cheaper cards as graders take less time overlooking the card and are less worried about the insurance on these cards. Anything expensive, you will most likely have to keep resubmitting it till you get lucky with the right grader or fix flaws before resubmitting. Chase cards this is especially true, your 1st edition Charizards/Blastoise/Venusaur/Dragonite/Gengar/etc. are all highly scrutinized cards. A grader will take more time looking for something wrong with these cards than lower value cards. With all that out of the way, let’s now take a close look at your card.

What cards do I grade?

Cards less than $20 raw are usually not worth the grading cost/time. If it’s a vintage card and it’s less than $40, or if it’s a liquid card like Pikachu then it could be a small profit. Take the cost of the card, plus the grading cost and look at PriceCharting.com or ebay sold listings for comps on what you think the grade will be. Don’t forget to account for eBay and other fees. Take into consideration that if it’s an odd card that people usually don’t search, or you see sales happening very rarely then you’ll have to fork over more for promoted listings to get ebay to push your card as sponsored ads. Usually 15-30% of the sold price will goto ebay. Then if you are doing free shipping, shipping supplies, etc. I only aim for cards above $80 raw value for modern. Vintage cards at $40 and above that have a high likelyhood of a 9 or higher. The exception can be made for cards higher than $200 raw and look to be in near mint (7 and above) condition. Exceptions can be made for popular Pokémon as these cards are more “liquid” and sell quicker. This is obviously all my own opinion, and you can make exceptions in cases where the card is sentimental. For example, I had a card that I knew was my first trade as a kid and wanted to encapsulate the card to pass down to my kids eventually (I didn’t care about the monetary value). Over time I’ve learned what to grade and what not to grade. You’ll get the same feel also after you’ve got a good amount of submissions under your belt. Some people never send cards unless they think they are 10s only. Some people like me go more for obscure cards like errors, unique pieces, etc. Bottom line, there is no right and wrong answer for what to grade as it really depends on your goal.

Now let’s get into the fun part. Let’s try and pre-determine the grade of a card BEFORE we submit it.

 

Tools needed to evaluate your cards

You don’t need all of these tools to get started. If you don’t have the budget, just start with the sleeves & card savers.

To support my hard work I put into this grading guide, please consider buying Giovanni’s Grading Kit that goes along with this guide. It helps support the guide and keeping it up to date with more information. All purchasers of the kit get direct contact with me if they have any questions during their card grading journey.

Wide Card Sleeves

* Required

I prefer a wide sleeve and usually cut one corner of the sleeve to make removing the card easier. Keep them closed so dust doesn’t get in the sleeves. Only pull one out once you have the card ready. PSA will let you use any see thru sleeves you want but I choose these for their size and quality. 

Card Savers

* Required

I stick with “Cardboard Gold” Card Saver I brand, but any brand is acceptable. Card savers are also a great way to ship a card in an envelope. When you send your cards in for submission, PSA won’t be shipping them back to you. From what I’ve heard, they cut open the card savers when taking the card out so pull tabs aren’t necessary for PSA.

 

5x or 10x Desktop Magnifying Glass

Optional

Used to scan the card for general flaws such as indents, holo scratches, print issues, water damage, creases, etc. This is a great tool to use in the dark when you’re going through your cards. If you don’t have any other hands free magnification then this is a perfect tool to add to your kit.

Bright, consistent light source

Optional

The magnifying glass I use has a built-in light but having a high output light is good for looking at the holo and surface of a card from multiple angles to catch flaws. These also make for great lighting if you make content or take pictures of cards for sale.

Mini Black Light Flashlight

Optional

A black light is a great tool to quickly scan the card for whitening and scratches. It can be used to see if the light bleeds through the card indicating it’s a fake. Lastly it can point out signs of altering on a card. If you buy expensive pokemon cards at trade shows, I recommend bringing this to scan the card.

Soft, clean cloth

Optional

I’ve experimented with all kinds of cloths to clean cards. Out of them all, this is the best one for not damaging the card. Using any cloth on holo should be serious business. One tiny piece of something can get caught between the card and the cloth then wreck the holo with scratches. Ensure you remove any loose materials from the card and nothing on the cloth before using.

Rubber disposable gloves

Optional

Used for handling high dollar cards to avoid putting fingerprints on it. They show up very easily on the back and holo part of the card. You can wipe fingerprints off safely before submitting. These are useful in many situations so having a box of rubber gloves is always a good idea.

20x or 40x Jewelers Loupe

Optional

When I use the desktop magnifier and see a possible issue, I use a higher magnification to see what exactly is wrong with the card. This jewelers loupe is a great tool for zooming into the card a bit more. It’s also nice to bring to card shows since it comes with a built in light and is very portable.

Digital Caliper

Optional

Later we will cover how to use a caliper to measure the centering of a pokemon card. There are other card centering tools that also work but they are tricky to use and when you need precision if it is border line centered, then this tool will let you figure it out down to a percentage. This method and formula to find centering can be found later in this guide.

Evaluating your cards

While looking for issues with your card, I highly recommend coping my Pokemon Grading Spreadsheet here. It has the name of the card, the grade you guess it will get, notes about the imperfections you found on the card, and the actual grade it gets. This will help sharpen your skills to correctly guess the cards grade. If you get a card wrong, then re-evaluate the card to see what you may have missed. Let’s say the card you thought was a 9 got a 7. This is probably because you missed a small indent, crease, or corner coming up. Getting better at accurately pre-grading raw cards will give you an advantage as a buyer. If it doesn’t match your guess, give the card another look over.

Take good pictures of your cards before sleeving them. Put your phone on 2x in a dark room with overhead lighting and snap good pictures. This also helps if you feel the card was damaged during shipping/grading for insurance purposes. These pictures come in handy if the grade it gets is way off from your guess. This helps you hone in your estimates over time.

Now let’s look at the important aspects you must review on your card.

Surface

Look for scratches, print lines, and any other imperfections. Use a magnifying glass and a bright light to examine the surface thoroughly. If your card has a scratch or a prominent print line, that will land you a 9 even if everything else is perfect about the card. If it has excessive scratches or multiple print lines, that will ding it more than one point. Take a look at the tabbed examples below on what to look for in the holo part of the card.

Scratches are common on holo vintage cards. Cards like Base Set Chansey and Jungle Vaporeon in a PSA 10 are wildly expensive due to the holo being so susceptible to scratching and print lines. Consider buying our Pokemon Card Cleaning Kit to help make vintage holos shine again! In the case of this Articuno, this would land a 7 most likely due to the amount of scratches. The length of the scratch, quantity of scratches, and location matters. If the scratches are just on the holo part, that may cost you 1, 2 or 3 grade points. However, if the scratches are deep (where you can see the silver holo layer under the paint) and go outside of the art box area, that can cost you even more points deducted. The legnth of the scratch also matters. 

This Machamp got a big ol’ vertical print line running up it ☹

These print lines are considered “imperfections” and can ding your grade.

Look for Horizontal or Vertical print lines. They look like a perfectly straight line that goes the full length of the holo layer. Most of these are from the wheels that move the sheets through the printing process. This will hurt your grade with PSA but oddly enough other companies like CGC care less about this imperfection. If the line isn’t dead center and is more at the top or bottom, that can also sway the grader opinion.

Excessively damaged cards can sometimes be graded as “Authentic” but also can be rejected as “Not gradable” if parts of the card are missing or it is not identifiable.

Damaged Surfaces

Most vintage holo cards have a natural bend to it so don’t stress over it. You should use an overhead light in a dark room to spot things like indents and dings on the card which can significantly hurt your chances at a high grade. Good news is my kits can reduce or remove damage like this in some cases. Checkout the types of surface issues you should look out for in the tabbed panel below.

Indents big and small should be looked for. Most cards graded a 5, 6, or 7 can suffer from some indent if at first glance the card seems fine. There are ways to reduce indents, but the process is time-intensive.

Indents on pokemon cards can be reduced and in some cases, removed with our Pokemon Card Flattening Kit.

Creases can happen in the middle of a card when taken out incorrectly. Depending on the size, you’ll get anywhere from a 7 for tiny creases, 5 for larger ones, and a 1 if it goes all the way across the card. Creases can be reduced with our Card Cleaning Kit, Card Flattening Kit and Crease Tool.

Water damage is a huge issue for grading and the damage can be irreversible. A card with even dime size of water damage can push you down to a PSA 5. If it covers half or more of the card, it will push it to a PSA 3 or lower. There are ways I’m working on to remove water damage, stay locked in.

 

Ripped cards will be returned to you as “not gradable” if large. Some tiny rips can get away with a 2 or 1.

Once you bend a holo card in half, it will “bubble up” on the holo. Full creases all the way across the card is usually an automatic 1. Depending on the size of the crease, you can get a higher grade.

Our  Holo Crease Thermal Pen Kit,  Card Cleaning Kit, Card Flattening Kit and Crease Tool can help reduce creases on the front of holo pokemon cards.

Ensure there are no print defects such as blurry images or misaligned text. Lookout for “print lines” on the front and back. Check the color of the card to ensure it doesn’t look faded.

No, this picture isn’t a blurry photo, that’s the actual card! Blurry text is rare to see but can happen. Some consider these error cards. This will not hit a gem mint grade and might get the OF (Out of Focus) Qualifier. More about qualifiers in a bit.

This doduo has “additional ink” on its belly and I had 3 copies of this card all with the same error. If the grader compares artwork to another 10 or the ink is obvious such as black/blue/red dot on the card, it will most likely not hit a gem mint.

   

“Hickeys” can sometimes be found on the front and backs in various colors. Some consider this an error and more valuable. From a grading standpoint, this would not be good and would negatively affect the grade. Only in the case where PSA recognizes the error as its own PSA Label, would it be ignored.

Edges

Inspect the edges for any whitening, dings, or fraying. Clean, sharp edges are crucial for a high grade. Whitening will knock the grade down a point or more depending on the amount. If there is excessive whitening on all edges and deep into the card, it could push it into the 7’s or lower. Tiny creases that don’t exceed beyond the blue border usually net a 7. If it goes beyond that or there is more than one crease, you’re in the 6 range. If there a crease well into the card, you’re looking at a 5 or much lower depending on the length. If the crease is on the front, that usually is a much worse grade. 

Whitening is common, the blue paint is very fragile.

Use the Mini Black Light Flashlight to shine on the back of the card and these white spots will stand out. Usually this is overkill for finding whitening but more important for tighter grading companies.

Tiny creases are almost always an automatic 7 or even lower if it is visible from the front.

Creases can be reduced with our Card Flattening Kit and Crease Tool.

A crease that goes from the edge of the card beyond the border starts the push the card into the PSA 5/6 grade. If the crease is small enough, there are methods to highly reduce the visibility of it. Creases on Pokemon Cards can be reduced with our Card Flattening Kit and Crease Tool.

Look at the yellow border on the front of vintage cards. You may see some of the silver foil layer visible on the edges. This is from either dull factory blades during the cutting process or improper storage. Interestingly enough, companies like CGC care a lot about silvering whereas PSA cares less about this. 

Corners

Check all four corners for any signs of wear, dings, or fraying. Corners must be well rounded. They should be even on all 4 corners and free from damage. You can get away with a small white dot on the corner but if there are more than 2 of them, your chances diminish. All 4 corners should have the same “roundness” to them all. However, the “pitch” into the edge of the card can sometimes exhibit a “grading” to them into the edge of the card off the round corner and still net a gem mint 10. See the picture below for what I mean.

Bent corners are common. By flattening these before submission, you can improve your chances of jumping a grade. Bent corners on Pokemon Cards can be reduced with our pen tool in the Card Cleaning Kit and the Card Flattening Kit.

This PSA 10 card has some slight factory miscut on the right side. It doesn’t come off the round corner in a perfect 90 degree angle but rather gradually goes into the edge.

See how perfect these round corners are? This is what you want to see for a solid grade.

This PSA 10 has a few white dots on the card itself, but they are pin dots. There are only 2 white dots on this PSA 10, had there been one more elsewhere, it could have been a PSA 9. Any whitening over the size of a pin dot is bad and might knock it down to a PSA 9 grade. There is no way to fix damage like this as it would venture into the dark arts of altering.

Centering

The borders should be evenly spaced on both front and back. PSA allows minor centering imperfections for Gem Mint 10, typically no worse than 55/45 on the front and 60/40 on the back. There have been stories about off center cards above these thresholds getting PSA 10s but most of those were graded before 2022 – after that PSA raised their centering standards more inline with the competition (BGS/CGC). I’ve seen a Beckett black label 10 moonbreon with an off center back but the front was flawless and centered perfectly. Most grading companies see the front centering as a very important aspect of a “perfect card” and will hold you to the 55/45 standard.

Rule of thumb for PSA 10 centering: 55/45 on the front and 60/40 on the back. Although there have been reports of 60/40 on the front and 75/25 on the back getting PSA 10s but I suspect these are cheap cards that PSA doesn’t mind handing out 10s for.

This Clefairy is very off center. If everything else is perfect about the card except the centering, that will still significantly effect the grade. Grading companies usually worry more about the front than the back of the card. That means if the front is centered but the back is not, you may have a chance at a 10 with the right grader.

There are such things as Pokemon Card Centering Tools but I find them to be much less accurate than using the caliper explained below. However, if you are a casual grader, these centering tools may suffice. After awhile, you’ll be able to just look at a card and know if it’s a decent shot at a 10 for centering or not. When it’s on the edge of 55/45, thats usually when I bust the caliper out.

How to calculate centering percentages

Using a Digital Caliper you can do the math to figure out the centering percentages.

Measure the left and right boarder with the caliper. Write the numbers down and then total them. Then run a percentage formula to come up with the left center percentage.

Left + Right = Total

(Left ÷ Total) x 100 = Left Percentage

Example.

Left = 3.1mm 

Right = 2.7mm

Total = 5.8mm

(3.1 ÷ 5.8) x 100 = 46.60%

Left 53.4% – Right 46.60%

Repeat these steps on the top/bottom and back of the card also.

We are looking to keep the number above 45% on the front for a good grade. The back you can get away with 40% or above.

The closer you have to 50/50, the chance of your gem mint status rises. You can usually see if its off center with the naked eye but using this method can give you a solid measurement in the case where you aren’t sure.

How To Legit Check Pokemon Cards

When buying Pokemon cards, you should always legit check them. Catching signs for unauthentic cards will save you a lot of headache before making your purchase. If you’ve bought them off eBay, they are really good about forcing the return to the seller of fake goods so don’t be afraid to contact eBay. You have only a small window of a few days after delivery before making these claims so be quick. Here is how you can check if a Pokemon card has been altered or if it’s fake:

  • Look for a black ink layer in the middle of the card on its side. This is called the “black core” layer. Many fakes lack this important feature. This is by far the best way to legit check any Pokemon card.
  • Use a small flashlight to see if it shines through the card. Cheap fakes are thin and you can see light bleed through it. This is usually because it lacks the black core layer.
  • Look for blue felt marker on the back. Check the side edges of the card. That is where you would see blue marker “bleeding” into the white middle layer. It is rare but some people have no morals and try to hide whitening. Worst off they use blue pen/marker which bleeds into the cardstock. This is a dead giveaway for the card to get kicked back as altered.
  • Compare the size of the card to another known pack fresh card to check for signs of trimming. People have been busted for trimming one side of a card to make the appearance of the borders look more centered. This is a rare one but something to consider on both graded and raw expensive cards.
  • Smell the card for smells like chemicals or smoke. Chemicals might be a sign that repairs were possibly made with bad cleaning practices. Any strong smells could be suspicious to a grader. Also checking the side of the card (edge) for polish is another way to spot bad cleaning practices. The black ink line on the edge of the card would be covered by polish that wasn’t properly cleaned off the card. In this instance, it might still be ok to purchase the card if it’s not obvious. Smoke smells are more of a personal preference, I hate that smell but won’t necessarily get your card marked as altered.

Know your Grades

Before you start guessing the grade of the card. Let’s look at a bunch of cards from PSA 1 all the way to a PSA 10. This will help you visually understand what each grade looks like.

Click on the boxes below to expand for more information.

PSA 10 – Gem Mint

A PSA 10 card is a virtually perfect card. Attributes include four perfectly sharp corners, sharp focus and full original gloss. A PSA 10 card must be free of staining of any kind, but an allowance may be made for a slight printing imperfection, if it doesn’t impair the overall appeal of the card. The image must be centered on the card within a tolerance not to exceed approximately 55/45 to 60/40 percent on the front, and 75/25 percent on the reverse.

This card is unreal. This card would probably have been a black label candidate if I had it raw. Still a solid grade and given the pop, you control the market and can probably fetch close to what you would get for a black label anyway.

This copy unlike the previous has a few flaws from what I can see. Mind you some of this may be dust but going off the pictures, the back shows some pin dot whitening on the corners and surface. I’m also seeing a dot on the front bottom right. Not sure if that’s on the card or something on the slab. Either way, note the centering is not as perfect as the last 10. It was deemed to be centered enough and there were probably no scratches on the holo so this got the grail grade. This is one of those cards that would get a 9 with most graders until you got the grader who used the 60/40 rule for the front centering vs. the more conservative 55/45 rule.

PSA 9 – Mint

A PSA 9 is a superb condition card that exhibits only one of the following minor flaws: a very slight wax stain on reverse, a minor printing imperfection or slightly off-white borders. Centering must be approximately 60/40 to 65/35 or better on the front and 90/10 or better on the reverse.

Centering is good, but I see some vertical print lines or scratches. Couple dots on the back will net this a 9. Solid card otherwise. No paint/edge wear, clear text, no dings, very clean other than the holo.

Look at this beauty! I think there are some scratches when you zoom into the holo. 3 white dots on the back on the right side. Other than that, maybe the slight off-center is what got this to a 9. If I held this card in hand and inspected the holo, didn’t see any scratches, then this might be a crack/resubmit candidate to try for the 10. I’d have to measure the borders on the front too, it might be off-center to the bottom.

PSA 8 – Near Mint/Mint

A PSA 8 is a super high-end card that appears PSA 9 at first glance, but upon closer inspection, the card can exhibit the following: a very slight wax stain on reverse, slightest fraying at one or two corners, a minor printing imperfection, and/or slightly off-white borders. Centering must be approximately 65/35 to 70/30 or better on the front and 90/10 or better on the reverse.

Really great surface on this one and very little edge wear. The centering really effected this one.

PSA 7 – Near Mint

A PSA 7 is a card with just a slight surface wear visible upon close inspection. There may be slight fraying on some corners. Picture focus may be slightly out-of-register. A minor printing blemish is acceptable. Slight wax staining is acceptable on the back of the card only. Most of the original gloss is retained. Centering must be approximately 70/30 to 75/25 or better on the front and 90/10 or better on the back.

 

Off centering is what hurt this one the most. There’s also whitening but had it not been off center and just had whitening, it may have been 1 grade higher.

PSA 6 – Excellent/Near Mint

A PSA 6 card may have visible surface wear or a printing defect which does not detract from its overall appeal. A very light scratch may be detected only upon close inspection. Corners may have slightly graduated fraying. Picture focus may be slightly out-of-register. Card may show some loss of original gloss, may have minor wax stain on reverse, may exhibit very slight notching on edges and may also show some off-whiteness on borders. Centering must be 80/20 or better on the front and 90/10 or better on the reverse.

 

Too bad its off centered. Its in decent shape for a 6! 

PSA 5 – Excellent

On PSA 5 cards, very minor rounding of the corners is becoming evident. Surface wear or printing defects are more visible. There may be minor chipping on edges. Loss of original gloss will be more apparent. Focus of picture may be slightly out-of-register. Several light scratches may be visible upon close inspection, but do not detract from the appeal of the card. Card may show some off-whiteness of borders. Centering must be 85/15 or better on the front and 90/10 or better on the back.

Off center front and back, scratching, whitening, but mainly the back middle is missing paint which is probably the main culprit. There’s a spot on the back above the “M” at the top, that could have been cleaned off but probably wouldn’t have bumpped this up a grade.

PSA 4 – Very Good/Excellent

A PSA 4 card’s corners may be slightly rounded. Surface wear is noticeable but modest. The card may have light scuffing or light scratches. Some original gloss will be retained. Borders may be slightly off-white. A light crease may be visible. Centering must be 85/15 or better on the front and 90/10 or better on the back.

 

Scratching on the front, edge wear, some strange dot on the front right, surface wear, and whitening netted this a 4. Cleaning that dot on the front and polishing this might have got it to a 5.

PSA 3 – Very Good

A PSA 3 card can exhibit lifted or dented corners, though not extreme. Some surface wear will be apparent, along with possible light scuffing or light scratches. Edges and corners may exhibit noticeable wear and whitening. Some of the card’s original gloss can be lost or noticable dull spots. Borders can show silvering meaining it is missing yellow paint on the edges. A crease or indent may be visible but online listings can make this hard to see. When you see a clean card, it is most likely an indent that can’t be seen with scans. Printing defects so slight stains are also possible. Centering must be 90/10 or better on the front and back.

 

This card is pretty off-center on the front and back. It has scratches on the front and a good amount of whitening on the back. All this pushed this to a 3.

This zard got delt a pretty rough grade. This is would something I’d buy and crack for sure. If you look hard enough at the back left in the middle, you can spot a crease. Something that would be perfect to fix with out restoration tools.

PSA 2 – Good

 A PSA 2 card’s corners show accelerated rounding and surface wear is starting to become obvious. A good card may have scratching, scuffing, light staining, or chipping of enamel on obverse. There may be several creases. Original gloss may be completely absent. Card may show considerable discoloration. Centering must be 90/10 or better on the front and back.

PSA 1.5

A PSA 1.5 card’s corners will show extreme wear, possibly affecting framing of the picture. The surface of the card will show advanced stages of wear, including scuffing, scratching, pitting, chipping and staining. The picture will possibly be quite out-of-register and the borders may have become brown and dirty. The card may have one or more heavy creases. In order to achieve a Fair grade, a card must be fully intact. Even though the card may be heavily worn, it cannot achieve this grade if it is missing solid pieces of the card as a result of a major tear, etc. This would include damage such as the removal of the back layer of the card or an entire corner. The centering must be approximately 90/10 or better on the front and back.

I’d love to crack this and clean off all the PokeMold on the back. This could get the 2.

PSA 1 – Poor

A PSA 1 will exhibit many of the same qualities of a PSA 1.5 but the defects may have advanced to such a serious stage that the eye appeal of the card has nearly vanished in its entirety. A Poor card may be missing one or two small pieces, exhibit major creasing that nearly breaks through all the layers of cardboard or it may contain extreme discoloration or dirtiness throughout that may make it difficult to identify the issue or content of the card on either the front or back. A card of this nature may also show noticeable warping or another type of destructive defect. Cards bent in half are also going to knock it down to a 1 regardless of surface condition.

Half-Point Grades

Cards that exhibit high-end qualities within each particular grade, between PSA 2 and PSA 9, may achieve a half-point increase. While PSA graders will evaluate all of the attributes possessed by a card in order to determine if the card may be eligible, there will be a clear focus on centering.

A – Authentic

This means that PSA is only certifying that the item is genuine, without a numerical grade. This may be due to the existence of an alteration, one with malice or otherwise, a major defect or the original submitter may have requested that PSA encapsulate the card without a grade. The “Authentic” label means that the item, in our opinion, is real but nothing more. The “Authentic” only designation is to be considered interchangeable with “Authentic Altered” and of equal value for the purposes of the PSA Financial Grade Guarantee. You will be charged the applicable grading fee in this instance.

AA – Authentic Altered

This means that while PSA is certifying that the item is genuine, due to the existence of alterations, the item cannot receive a numerical grade. The term altered may mean that the card shows evidence of one or more of the following: trimming, recoloring, restoration, and/or cleaning. Items receiving the “Authentic Altered” designation, in our opinion, are genuine with the presence of some type of alteration. This designation is used on a case-by-case basis, space permitting, and “AA” must be listed on the submission form as the desired minimum grade. The “Authentic Altered” designation is to be considered interchangeable with “Authentic” only and of equal value for the purposes of the PSA Financial Grade Guarantee. You will be charged the applicable grading fee in this instance.

What are “Qualifiers”?

In some cases, a card will be designated with a qualifier. A “qualified” card is a card that meets all the criteria for a particular grade but fails the standard in one area. For example, a card which exhibits all the qualities of a NM-MT 8, but is 90/10 centered left to right, will receive a grade of NM-MT 8oc. The “OC” stands for off-center. Here is a brief list of qualifiers: OC (Off-center), ST (stain), PD (Print Defect), OF (Out of Focus), MC (Miscut), and MK (Marks).

OC (Off-center)

Cards that are off center will either by designated “OC” or will have a numerical grade that reflects the minimum centering allowed for the grade. PSA determines centering by comparing the measurements of the borders from left to right and top to bottom. The centering is designated as the percent of difference at the most off-center part of the card. A 5% leeway is given to the front centering minimum standards for cards which grade PSA 7 or better. For example, a card that meets all of the other requirements for PSA 9 and measures 60/40 off-center on the front automatically meets the PSA front centering standards for PSA 9. If a card meets all of the other requirements for PSA 9 and measures 65/35 off-center on the front, it may be deemed to meet the PSA front centering standards for PSA 9 if the eye appeal of the card is good.

Centering on this got all messed up during the cutting process. It still netted the 9 but would never hit the 10.

ST (Stain)

Cards with staining will either by designated “ST” or will have a numerical grade that reflects the minimum staining allowed for the grade.

This has some issues on the top left that looks like holo bleed or it could be an oil stain. I also see signs this might have adhesive or sticky stuff on it. This netted the rare “Stain” qualifier. Rare but not for the right reasons.

MC (Miscut)

Any and all cards that exhibit an atypical cut for the issue, which may result in portions of the subject card being cut off or more than one card being visible, will be designated “MC.”

When the off-centering is so bad that one border isn’t even visible, it will net the MC qualifier. You’ll also see the “black dots” on these cards which were used for calibration on the cutting machine. Some people love these errors and could net you more value in some cases. The market is small for these sort of collectors so you may have to sit on it.

Miscut with two visible cards

Be careful what you attempt to submit for the MC qualifier. Some cases where another card is visible, PSA can reject it. This is why CGC is popular for errors because they will holder anything. In these cases, I’d just try to sell it raw.

This Topps card is a really cool miscut but I don’t think PSA likes grading cards when two characters are visible. The question would come in, which name we put on the label, was this hand cut, etc. They opt to just kick these errors back to be safe.

PD (Print Defect)

Cards with printing defects will either be designated “PD” or will have a numerical grade that reflects the minimum print defects allowed for the grade.

This has the known error of “cigar stain” but the grader put the “PD” qualifier on it. Has the submitter searched on PSA for the error label of this card, it would have gotten the correct error label and no “PD” qualifier added.

OF (Out of Focus)

Cards that are out of focus or out of register with either be designated “OF” or will have a numerical grade that reflects the minimum focus standards allowed for the grade.

I couldn’t even find a Pokémon example of an “OF” qualifier card. Very bizarre that I can’t find one anywhere. Maybe PSA doesn’t give OF on Pokémon or it’s that rare. It just means the ink layers got shifted during the printing process and didn’t align right.

MK (Marks)

Any and all cards with writing, ink marks, pencil marks, etc. or evidence of the impression left from the act of writing will be designated “MK.”

This Venusaur suffered from someone taking a sharpie to its No. in the bottom right. PSA will only do this if the marking is without malicious intent. Meaning signs of altering such as a blue felt marker on the back of the card to hide whitening, paint matching, etc. Check for signs of alteration before you buy any card. Use a black-light to spot these alterations.

Hand cut cards

Just a quick note to dispel what PSA will grade when the card is cut by hand. If the only way to get the card was to get it from an uncut sheet then they will grade it. An example would be a pokemon toy wishes magazine card which were meant to be hand cut from the magazine itself. A normal factory cut version of the card was never issued.

H/C here meaning “Hand Cut”

Pre-grading your cards

After years of doing this, I am still not 100% accurate on my pre-grades. They can come in lower or higher but most of the time I’m on the money. If you have a card you want to grade and there are a lot of them listed on ebay, try to find a card in a similar condition to yours. This will help you gauge what grade it might get. If it’s a cheap card, your chances of a 10 are much greater than dealing with a high-end card (trust me on this point). When you are pre-grading your cards, you need to take that into account. They are going to be a lot more strict on letting things slide with a raw $500 card vs. a $20 card.

Be more conservative with your pre-grades on chase cards and looser with the lower-end stuff. Take more time on reviewing the card for defects on chase cards vs. the lower-end cards. Graders usually spend 60 seconds per card but if it’s a serious card, they will take their time making sure nothing is missed. Graders have to grade all kinds of cards like Sports, Pokemon, etc. This means if they have an expensive card that they don’t specialize in and are unsure of their grade, they will ask one of the Sr. graders that does specialize in it to take a closer look and get a 2nd opinion. Additionally, all grades go through a QA check where grades are gut checked. This step is really just a quick glance from a different grader to ensure there is no obvious misguides. Cheap cards are barely looked at but if it is a really expensive card, this is where your grade will most likely get knocked down again if the first grader missed something.

Here are the big things to keep in mind when estimating your grades:

  • The lowest grade of centering, corners, edges, and surface will be your grade. It is not an average of all the grades.
  • Front centering is key for a gem mint 10. It must be a 55/45 or better.
  • Damage to the front is going to knock more points off than damage on the back of the card.
  • What is the overall look and feel of the card, does it have good “curb appeal”

Here is a loose formula you can follow for pre-grading.

NOTE: These point deductions are not componding! Meaning don’t keep deducting points. Consider the point deduction categorically meaning if you have -3 points on surface and -1 point on centering, it doesn’t mean -4 points on your grade. It means consider it “10 – 3 = 7” cause you are taking the wosrt category of the grades you calcuated for each of the 4 categoies and using that as your final grade.

Centering:

  • Measure borders (Yellow border on vintage, grey on modern) get the ratio between the 2 numbers (division of the total)
    • Between 50/50 & 55/45 on the front and 50/50 & 75/25 on the back (considered gem mint centering)
    • Between 56/44 & 60/40 on the front and 76/25 & 90/10 on the back   -1 point
    • Between 61/39 & 65/35 on the front and 90/10 or better on the back   -2 points
    • Between 66/34 & 70/30 on the front and 90/10 or better on the back  -3 points
      • Note: If card starts to worsen from centering from here at a PSA 7 but everything else is perfect about the card, in some cases a grader will do you a favor and give you a 9 (OC) qualifier to designate card is great but is off centered. 
    • Between 71/29 & 80/20 on the front and 90/10 or better on the back   -4 points
    • Between 81/19 & 85/15 on the front and 90/10 or better on the back   -5 points
    • Between 86/14 & 90/10 on the front and back.                                           -8 points
  • Border not showing (Miscut Qualifier)   -2 points

Bends/Creases:

  • Note: If you fix the crease using my kits but paint is missing, skip this section.
  • Most are an automatic 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 or 1 depending on severity.
  • Small Crease (under 1/4th of the length of the card)
    • Visible on the Back          -3 points
    • Visible on the Front         -4 points
  • Medium Crease (under 1/2 of the card length)
    • Visible on the Back           -5 or 6 points
    • Visible on the Front         -6 or 7 points
  • Large Crease (under 3/4ths of the card length)
    • Visible on the Back           -7 points
    • Visible on the Front         -8 points
  • Full Crease all the way through the back of the card -8 points (-9 points if visible on the front)
  • Small Bent Corner Visible on Back   -3 or -4 points
  • Folded / Lifted Corners Visible on Front -5 points (more if big)

Indents:

  • Super small indent -1 point (-1 for additional indents)
  • Medium indent -3 points
  • Large indent -5 points or more

Surface:

  • Super small single scratch may be no deduction
  • 1/4 inch scratch or more -1 point
  • Too many scratches on holo to count -3 points
  • Front has scratches exposing holo silver layer or white layer -1 point
  • Front has PokeMold or other dust/finger prints -1 point
  • Back has minor whitening (3 to 5 dots) -1 point
  • Back has moderate whitening (6 to 10 dots) -2 points
  • Back has major whitening (11 dots or lots of wear) -3 or more points

Corners:

  • Corner coming up (dented) -3 points
  • Corner not rounded correctly -1 point
  • Obvious corner miscut -1 point
  • Whitening over the size of a pin dot -1 point

Edges:

  • Whitening on the edge -1 point
  • Whitening on two sides of the card -2 points
  • Whitening on all sides of the card -3 or more points
  • White “fuzz” coming off the card on edges can suffer from -1 point
  • A ding on an edge can suffer from a -3 point or more deduction depending on size of the damage.

Don’t take this as a strict formula in the sense of deducting for each flaw. Take the case where there is a tiny crease and some whitening. The crease already put it at a 7 and since that alone bumps it down so much, it comes with some leniency on the whitening. Reviewing slabs on eBay with the same damage will give you a better idea of what the range of grades could be.

If any piece of the card is missing or print layer torn off, automatic 1 or even get rejected if it’s substantial. You can find 2 or 3s with lots of wear/whitening but those tend to have no creases or other issues.

Guessing 8, 9, 10 usually is easier than trying to guess the 2 through 7 range. Cards in that lower range tend to vary depending on the grader. If it hits a 1, it will probably always regrade as a 1. Getting a bump in a grade when it’s a 5, 6, 7, 8 or 9 is what I usually aim for when cracking slabs but there’s gotta be something I can clean/fix for me to do it. The bump from 9 to 10 is really challenging though and may require multiple resubmissions. Grader notes is what comes in handy to gut check what you missed. More on that in the next section!

Card Cleaning/Restoration Before Submission

Cleaning and restoring deserves its own guide. It’s just too many details to cover here. I’ll eventually create another guide/video on just that alone. I’m sorry but you can always checkout my YouTube or Instagram for methods previously covered.

Preparing Your Submission

After you have cleaned and pre-graded your card, now it’s time to prepare them for submission. Let’s first get our card prepared for grading by protecting them properly.

Getting your cards ready

I like to use wide card sleeves so it’s easier to remove the card without damaging it. I also like to cut the corner of the sleeve. This makes taking the card in and out easy. 

Cut the corner of the sleeve off. This lets you open up the sleeve easier.

Put your card carefully into the sleeve.

Place the sleeved card into a Card Saver I

Final product! Now repeat for each card in your submission.

A quick note on pull tabs or “post it notes/etc” to make it easier to pull the card out. I wouldn’t use any “sticky pull tabs” on the sleeves. You can use pull tab sleeves for BGS/CGC but I wouldn’t use these for PSA. PSA has explicitly stated not to use sticky pull tabs since it covers the card since they have to scan the card before grading. This makes their jobs harder cause they have to manually remove that stuff before scanning. I’ve heard they just cut open the card saver when processing so a pull tab doesn’t really help much in that case.

Create your Submission

Now that you have all your cards prepared in card savers, you will need to create your submission. I’d recommend using a local card shop or GameStop for your first submission. They will help ID the cards correctly and get your cards submitted correctly.

Shipping your order

These are my steps for getting everything ready for shipping. Lookup what the instructions are for your grading company as there may be other recommendations.

Review that you have your cards in the correct order that your submission has them laid out.

If you fail to have the card in the order as they are on the sheet, a surcharge might be added. You’ll probably piss the grader off too cause now he’s gotta go fix your mistake. What is on this sheet will be the label it gets. If you have an error card; make sure you selected the label with that error in the name. If you put that error card in with the normal label (without the error in the name), it will be graded as such. If you messed up your order, don’t worry. You can always go back and edit it before you ship it. Just make sure to reprint your submission packet and throw away the old one.

Get a Card Saver and some sturdy cardboard. Cut to about the size of the card saver. Make 2 pieces.

Put the stack of cards in between the two pieces of cardboard.

Use two rubber bands to secure the bundle together.

Wrap in bubble wrap and secure with another rubber band. Avoid using tape for packing the internals.

 

Find an empty box that will fit your submission. I use boxes from my previous submissions. I don’t think that effects graders decisions but some brownie points maybe. Take your submission copies you printed and grab your cards. Wrap them with bubble wrap or paper. Pack the box with paper/bubble wrap so your items don’t shift around in the box.

Use a colored duct tape on your shipment. This isn’t required but grading companies recommends it. Probably more for security purposes. Security tamper proof tape is best.

For expensive or sentimental cards, I would ship USPS Registered Mail – Just pack your stuff and don’t tape the box closed. Goto the mailbox and they will give you special tape to seal the box up completely. All seams on the box must have tape over them for registered mail.

For all of my other bulk submissions, I usually send it priority mail with USPS click and ship. I honestly don’t insure or require signature anymore. In all my box shipments, I’ve never had an issue (knock on wood) so I’ve just opted to save the money and take the risk. Only case were I will insure it and require signature is if the cards I’m submitting belong to others.

The shipping address will be in your instructions. The address may vary based on the shipping carrier you are using. Some grading companies offer discounted labels right through their website but I personally like using USPS.

After putting your shipping label on the box. Check your instructions from the grading company as some require a barcode label on the side of the package. In your submission packet, you’ll see the barcode to cut out that looks like this:

Cut this out and tape it to the side of the box. Don’t tape over the barcode. DO NOT FORGET THIS STEP OR YOUR PACKAGE WILL LAND IN THE SLOW QUEUE LANE.

Now go ship it! I either drive to the post office to get a receipt of drop-off or use Schedule a Pickup with USPS where they will stop by the house to pick the shipment up next day.

With your cards shipped, we must wait… This is the most nail-biting part of the process. Be patient as the two stages it takes the most time in is research and ID, then the actual grading step. What ever tier you are using usually designates the time to expect. 

Looking at your graded cards

Once you get your cards back, I normally like to get slab sleeves and add some protection to them. One thing when I started grading that I want to point out is inside the slab, there is a little white square that may look like it’s on your card. When I first seen this, I thought they damaged my card but when the card slides around, I noticed it was on the slab. I’ll add a picture at some point of what I mean by this.

Cracking Slabs & Resubmitting

 Some grading companies have a “reconsideration” service where you can send a graded card back to them if you don’t agree with the grade. Don’t do this unless you’re really scared of cracking the slab and got other professional opinions that it was mis-graded. I’ve sent in a double holo magikarp for this review service and it got the same grade. I prefer cracking and resubmitting because it puts the guessing work back on the grader rather than them having a previous grade number in their head.

If you are trying to get a 10 and you got back a 9 then it may be worth cracking the slab and resubmitting it back. Depending on the cost to regrade and price difference between a 9 and 10 will dictate if it is worth resubmitting. Most 9s that look perfect usually have a corner on the back slightly coming up. I’d avoid cleaning the card and just focus on flattening the card. As careful as you think you are, cleaning the card will still leave some micro-scratching in some cases.

However, let’s say you have a card that has some damage and you’re guessing it gets a 7 because of a small indent but you see that the holo is perfect, no scratches, corners/centering are great, etc. In this case I would consider one of two paths. If the card isn’t worth gambling on another regrade with the same grading company, then getting a Beckett grade and paying for the sub-grade labels will help highlight the card is super clean. The other option is to crack it and resubmit it.

Rare cases of issues I’ve had

None of these are PSAs fault but more on me. However, I’d like to include some interesting edge cases I’ve hit with PSA to maybe help if you run into one of these issues.

Error Cards

Do your homework and ask the community before assuming something is an error card. There have been cards that I thought were double holo error cards and come to find out, I wasn’t looking in the right place for the error or PSA doesn’t recognize that error for that card. When searching for the card in PSA, if you can’t find the label and try to make your own, there is a 99.999% chance PSA won’t make a special label just for you. There have been cases were I had Incomplete Holo Error cards that were in PSA slabs with the error listed, resubmitted and come to find out, they decided to stop labeling that error going forward. I lost money in both of these cases but sometimes to gotta take Ls to find ways to score the W.

Last minute shipping & forgetting the external barcode

With some monthly specials, you have 30 days to submit the cards. If the label on the package is before the date, you are good to go and they will honor the special rate. However, I had a situation once where I shipped a submission 3 days before expiration of the submission and it completely disappeared from my orders list. It is super important you keep the client copy of your submission form or the email for your records. In this case, I called PSA and they stated if you forget to put the external label, it will take longer to process. This is because those barcodes are used to orginaze packages into queue. The high dollar value services are processed quicker and this is how they can tell which packages are supposed to skip the line vs. bulk submissions that will be processed when they get around to it.

PSA Estimates ($ amount)

Never use the PSA Estimates as the actual value of the card. In almost all cases, PSA is extremely off with their estimates compared to actual market value. I have a feeling PSA sandbags these values for their own insurance purposes if they need to cash you out on an issue.

 

Contacting Customer Support

Don’t email PSA or use their contact form. You’re better off calling them if you have any questions.

PSA Phone Number : 1 (800) 325-1121

If you email PSA asking why you got a low grade, you’ll get this canned response.

We understand the desire to know the “why” behind a grade. Comparing your card to a picture online can be an instinctive response, but there are a lot of things that you simply can’t see via images. Keep in mind that grading is three-dimensional, meaning that images flatten defects. There are many types of defects that, in order to see them, you must be able to move, tilt, and rotate the cards. Along with moving the cards to view them at multiple angles, lighting also plays a huge part in being able to see tiny defects. When reviewing your card, try putting your card in a low, single-light setting in a dark room, since bright lights can often “blow out” imperfections.

You may also find it interesting to learn that grades do not average out. If you have corners that meet the criteria of a 6, but you have a surface that meets the criteria of an 8 – your card would be a 6. It does not average out to a 7. You’re welcome to review our grading standards here, but please keep in mind that in the end, the final grade is at the discretion of our experts.

While providing a detailed report regarding the result is not a part of our services, please be assured that your cards are always seen by a minimum of two independent graders and that their results must match before the order can be completed.

If your grading company has a support line, try that first before trying contact forms or emails.

Conclusion

Submitting your Pokémon cards for grading can be a rewarding process, but it requires careful preparation and attention to detail. By following this comprehensive guide, you can maximize your chances of achieving the highest grades possible for your cards.

If you have any questions, reach out to me on Instagram @PokeMasterCenter or email me at PokeMasterCenter@gmail.com

I’m also looking for feedback, input, and changes that make this one of the most detailed guides out there. Please reach out to me if you think I missed something or have opinions on some of the statements I’ve made.

Happy collecting and grading!

PSA Lingo (Glossary)

https://www.psacard.com/resources/lingo

Error Cards

https://www.cgccards.com/news/article/9851/error-card-types/

https://www.psacard.com/info/tcg/pokemon-error-guide